Paul McCartney will return on December 11th with McCartney III. The self-titled album arrives on the 50th anniversary of the former Beatles’ first solo album; like both McCartney I and its 1980 follow-up McCartney II, McCartney III is solo album in every sense, self-produced and recorded solely by McCartney, who plays every instrument.
“Paul hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of ‘Rockdown,’ he soon found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating even more new ones,” a press release explains. “Before long an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped back, self-produced and, quite literally, solo work marking the opening of a new decade, in the tradition of 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II.”
“I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day,” adds McCartney in his own statement. “I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next? I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished so I started thinking about what I had. Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”
A limited-edition vinyl pressing of McCartney III, created using using 33 recycled vinyl copies of McCartney I and McCartney II, is being released by Third Man Records.
McCartney III marks Macca’s 18th solo album to date and arrives a little more than two years after his previous LP, Egypt Station.
McCartney III Artwork:
